Experiences of a British-born Californian living in Kauai

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A month on Midway!

I’m sitting at LIH airport, taking advantage of a one-hour flight delay, to resurrect this blog which I started when we first moved to Kaua’i.

Today I’m heading out to Midway Atoll, to spend a month among the birds. Since this means Christmas and New Year away from home, I’m very grateful to my old man Steve for fully supporting this opportunity. I’m sure he’ll enjoy his month’s vacation from his ball-n-chain too! 😜

I’ve been looking forward to this trip for months. Excited? I should coco.

I’m part of a volunteer team who will be carrying out the annual albatross census. We’ve been warned that the Internet is very slow (and definitely no wifi), so I’m not sure how many photos I’ll be able to upload during the trip, but I hope at least to share a taster of my experience over the next few weeks.

For those wondering where the heck is Midway…

It’s at the far north-west edge of the Northwestern Hawaiian islands; it’s home to several species of albatross, mostly Laysan, as well as many other seabirds, and very few humans…which is exactly how the birds like it!

This is what it looks like from the air, though I won’t experience that amazing view, as we’ll be landing at night, to avoid bird strikes.

I’m the only one on the team from Kaua’i, so I’m very much looking forward to meeting most of the team in Honolulu later today. We’ll fly from there to Midway by charter jet, and meet the team leaders who’ve already been preparing for the census. Tomorrow we’ll get to find out what we’ve really let ourselves in for! 😄